This application is related to provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/139,429 filed on Jun. 14, 1999.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for establishing a live contact between visitors to a website and a representative of the company or organization or individual whose website is being visited. The invention combines the Web with instant messaging to allow website operators to monitor in real-time how many people are visiting sections of their website, from where and for how long and to proactively approach the visitor with an instant message, thereby engaging the visitor in a dialog with the company representative.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The World Wide Web has transformed the way in which businesses operate today. The majority of companies in the world today are either already on the Web or moving towards it. Studies have shown that the majority of consumers will first turn to the Web as a source of information before they make a buying decision.
However, if the Web has done one thing, it has made business more competitive. Buyers have information available at their fingertips and the competition is literally “one click” away. Though this has been an immense boon to buyers, it makes competing in the Internet marketplace more difficult. In a way, the Web has empowered the “browsers” to get more information and have the power of gathering the information.
On the other hand, companies, organizations, and individuals who establish a website for personal or for business use, are always trying to find the answer to the questions: Who is visiting my website? What information are they viewing? Are they finding the information they need? How do I contact the prospective customers on my website?
Current approaches to answering the above questions include lengthy and complicated analysis of web site log files and statistical analyses to predict the demographics of the visitors to a web site. For high traffic web sites this results in analyzing several gigabytes of data to produce a report which is marred with statistics and graphs which, though informative to some level, lack the ability to provide a good feel for the pulse of the website.
At the same time, the Internet has created a need for real-time analysis and action. Information needs to be available faster and decisions made faster based on the availability of this information. Though there have been several companies offering real-time log-analysis, the resulting information is still vague and does not allow the company to literally reach out and communicate with their customers or visitors to their web site.
The rationale behind this invention is to treat visitors to a website with the same amount of respect and hospitality as if they had literally walked in to your office or home, rather than simply spending millions of dollars to just put out information on the web for people to find by themselves.
The invention described herewith provides the website operators with the ability to answer the questions mentioned above and more, creating a unique approach to operating a website and truly getting their finger on what is happening on the web site at any instant in time.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to empower website operators to monitor visitors to their web site and to empower them (website operators) to proactively approach visitors on their website to offer assistance or solicit sales.